Focus

"L'Osservatore Romano" Has Been Remodeled. Here Are All of the Changes

More interviews. More space given to women. Non-Catholic contributors. International news, and about the Churches and the religions. Major cultural topics. To prompt thought and discussion even outside of Catholic boundaries

by Sandro Magister

ROMA, November 29, 2007 – To the cardinals gathered behind closed doors for their consistory with the pope, on Friday, November 23, Vatican secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone recommended one thing above all: that they read "L'Osservatore Romano." And he did the same thing with his fellow diners at a celebratory dinner for one of the new cardinals, the evening of Sunday, November 25.

For one month, "L'Osservatore Romano" has had a new director, professor Giovanni Maria Vian, 55, a specialist in ancient Christian literature and in Church history. And for one month, the publisher of this same newspaper has shown a keen interest in its recovery.

The main publisher is the pope. On Thursday, November 8, in a rare gesture for him, Benedict XVI invited to lunch Vian and his vice-director Carlo Di Cicco, also freshly appointed, sharing a drop of port with them at dessert, another sign of trust.

But after the main stakeholder, the pope, there is his delegated administrator, Bertone. The task that the secretary of state assigned to Vian and Di Cicco last winter, when they had already been selected for their posts, was to imprint upon "L'Osservatore Romano" a clear change of direction, as soon as they were put in command.

Fewer pages, and more text. The number of pages fell to 8, from their former 12 or 16, while the text increased by 10 percent. The page design is sober and elegant, and will be even more so with a graphic redesign that is in development. Gone are the enormous headlines and the full-page photos of recent years.

The layout is better organized: on the first and last pages are the words of the pope and the major Vatican events, with a brief commentary and the official statements. The second and third pages present international politics, Italy included. Culture is on the fourth and fifth pages. On the sixth and seventh is news about the Catholic Church around the world, about the other Christian confessions, and about the other religions.

The previous regular contributions and features have been eliminated, and the outside commentators have changed. Not all of them are Catholic. Anna Foa, for example, who is Jewish and a history teacher at Rome's "La Sapienza" university, wrote on a burning issue, the reason why hundreds of thousands of Arabs abandoned the land occupied by Israel in the first war of 1948.

Another new development is that women are writing front page commentaries: the jurist Patrizia Clementi, the non-Catholic feminist Eugenia Roccella, the historian Lucetta Scaraffia. In a lucky stroke of foresight, Scaraffia wrote an article highlighting the ideas of a teacher of international law at Harvard, Mary Ann Glendon, who was designated a few days later as the new United States ambassador to the Holy See.

The stated goal of the new director Vian is to bring to the pages of "L'Osservatore Romano" intellectuals of the highest caliber, "who know how to prompt thought and discussion even beyond the perimeter of the Church."

The biblicist Gianfranco Ravasi, the new president of the pontifical council for culture, is one of these. Then there is the great specialist in ancient Christian literature Manlio Simonetti, a worldwide authority on questions like the relationship between the canonical Gospels and the apocryphal and Gnostic writings, which today have returned dangerously into fashion. Then there is Inos Biffi, an unparalleled expert in medieval theology. Then there are the rising stars of the pro-Ratzinger curia: Nicola Bux and the Anglo-German Uwe Michael Lang. Then there is Valentino Miserarchs Grau, head of the pontifical institute of sacred music, one of whose indictments against modern musical disasters and in defense of Gregosian chant occupied an entire page of "L'Osservatore."

The frequent use of interviews is another novelty introduced by Vian. One that made an impact was the interview with Metropolitan Cyril, the second in command of the Russian Orthodox Church, who was unusually gracious toward the Church of Rome. Also surprising was the first page commentary entrusted to the French Protestant Jean-Arnold de Clermont, president of the Conference of European Churches, on the eve of the consistory of cardinals on the very topic of ecumenism. Other articles have been written by representatives of the Orthodox Churches. And the honor of the front page has gone even to one ecumenical personality: Brother Alois Loser, prior of the community of Taizé.

The secretariat of state provides "L'Osservatore" with the official statements and the pope's texts. In this, the journal has authority: an appointment, for example, becomes official when it is printed. But otherwise "L'Osservatore" lives autonomously. The person responsible for the articles is the director, who is not at all required to have them inspected before they are printed.

But the established practice is that the secretariat of state has a say in the articles that deal with sensitive topics: the Middle East, nuclear weapons, China, Islam. It can happen that texts are blocked or rewritten. One result of this collective effort has been, for example, the way in which "L'Osservatore" covered the visit of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to the Vatican. Next to the photo of the king with the pope, beneath the title "Under the banner of dialogue and collaboration," the dominant article on the front page dealt with the request of the Vatican's representative at the UN for "a new resolution on religious freedom," with a title stretching across four columns: "The credibility of the United Nations depends on tangible respect for human rights." He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

The person at the secretariat of state who oversees "L'Osservatore Romano" is Mgr. Carlo Maria Polvani. The diplomat who handles the Middle East is Franco Coppola. For Italy, there is Antonio Guido Filipazzi. But questions of great interest also receive attention from higher level officials, the assessor for general affairs Gabriele Caccia, and the undersecretary for relations with states, Pietro Parolin.

"L'Osservatore" comes off the presses every afternoon, except on Sundays and feast days, bearing the date of the following day. It goes on sale after 5 pm at the newsstand behind the right-hand colonnade of Saint Peter's Square, near the Bronze Door. At all the other newsstands, it is sold the following morning. Being a newspaper printed in the afternoon, work at the editorial offices begins at dawn. The first meeting with the director is at 8:15. The offices and printing facilities are in the "industrial zone" of Vatican City, not far from St. Anne's Gate. The idea of waiting until the evening to finalize the paper, as is done for almost all the newspapers, has been examined. But it clashes with the fact that the main activities of the pope take place in the morning, which makes publication in the afternoon the quickest way to release these events.

But the new course at "L'Ossevatore" is only at its beginning. It is already obligatory reading for understanding the pontificate of Benedict XVI. Meanwhile, however, it continues to sell too few copies: a few hundred at the newsstands, and a few thousand by subscription. The numbers are a bit better for the weekly editions in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and the monthly edition in Polish, with a selection of articles. A campaign to expand its readership is planned.

But the true turning point will come with the internet, from which "L'Osservatore Romano" is practically absent today. When, in a few months, everything will be available immediately online, in multiple languages, this very special newspaper will make the leap of its life, from Rome to the world.

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Addio, Italian pages

Over one month, Italy has won front page coverage only once, in the new "L'Osservatore Romano" directed by Giovanni Maria Vian. But it hasn't been very prominent on the inside pages, either, in the section dedicated to international news: around twenty articles in all, and much skimpier than the ones on Burma, Iran, or Somalia.

Until one month ago, with the previous director, Mario Agnes, it was entirely different. Both Italy and Rome had an entire page dedicated to them. The articles went to print without the Vatican secretariat of state seeing them ahead of time. And there was the predictable uproar when the major newspapers reprinted portions of these as if they exemplified the thought of the Holy See, and not the personal ideas of the paper's fiery director.

Of the twenty articles about Italy published by "L'Osservatore" over the past month, most have dealt with immigration, volunteer organizations, the schools, the family, abortion, children: all questions concerning society as a whole.

Politics in the strict sense has been touched upon only in passing: a brief note from a news agency on the approval of financial legislation in the Italian senate, and an article on the makeup of the country's new democratic party. Not even a line on the announcement of the major new center-right party created by Silvio Berlusconi.

Very little space for Italian politics, and even less for the politicians. When two of these, Francesco Rutelli and Pierferdinando Casini, eagerly presented a book by bishop Rino Fisichella, rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, "L'Osservatore" succeeded in filling a column and a half on the event without mentioning the name of either man.

The only exception to this general reservation has been a front page editorial, on November 11, entitled: "On the presumed privileges of the Catholic Church in Italy."

Both the Italian bishops' conference (CEI) and the Vatican have decided not to remain silent about the request for clarification addressed to Italy by the European Commission, on the tax exemptions given to much of the property owned by the Church. And they entrusted the reply, in "L'Osservatore Romano," to a highly persuasive writer and jurist, Patrizia Clementi, who demolished the accusations point by point.

Just one combative article on Italy in a month may not seem like much. But it has made its mark. Thanks to the new "L'Osservatore Romano," it is clear that, on this point, the Vatican and the CEI will not give way by an inch.

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The article from www.chiesa on the appointment of the new director, with a history of the newspaper and a famous analysis by Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Paul VI: